You definitely want Bestiary I if you're just starting out. It has all the staples of the game. Bestiary II adds some awesome variety, but leans towards the higher levels, as I recall.
The only gripe I have about the GM screen is the lack of the Actions in Combat table that notes what does and does not provoke AoO's, but that can easily be printed out and taped on. The physical quality of the screen and the artwork is just awesome, IMHO.
Alas, I don't have a wide breadth of experience with the various AP's out there, so I can't make a recommendation there. Is there a particular type or theme of adventure you're leaning towards, to give others a better idea of what might be best? Urban, Wilderness Exploration, etc?
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Definitely have everyone start at Level 1. It will be easier for you to master what everyone can and can't do as they build their characters level by level. The Gamemastery Guide is very helpful for building your own campaign. Also, Bestiary I will do nicely. I would really recommend SORD at RPGnow (linked) for Pathfinder as a reference tool for you.
Best of luck!
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Two pieces of advice:
First, start with published adventures until you get some experience. If nothing else, it helps give you a feel for how a tabletop game works, and all the monsters come with stat blocks pre-made, along with their strategies.
I recommend either Burnt Offerings or Crypt of the Everflame. Burnt Offerings is written for 3.5, not Pathfinder, and it's the first part of a six-part adventure, but it's quite easy to convert to Pathfinder, and it really stands out well on it's own, and is an easy-to-run adventure.
Crypt of the Everflame, on the other hand, is written for Pathfinder, is a great introduction to the rules, provides a wonderful starting point for a campaign, and is a great adventure.
If this is your first time as a GM, a few points you should keep in mind.
A) Do not be afraid to fudge the dice a bit. Don't do it all the time, but, if the players are having a super hard time from bad rolls on their side (they've rolled 3 crit failures, or haven't managed to hit the bad guys once in 3 rounds), then fudge a bit in their favor. Have the bad guy fail a saving throw, or critically fail an attack and leave himself flat footed.
B) Do not be afraid to fudge the dice a bit. Yes, A & B are the same, but on the opposite sides. If the PCs are having a huge night and have critted 3 or 4 times already in the battle, don't be afraid to fudge the rolls a bit in the monsters favor. The idea is you want the game to be fun, if they're blowing through everything with little effort they may begin to feel like you're doing A instead of just getting lucky. Don't do this all the time. If you have a BBEG that you intended to use for multiple games, and he's just having a sucky night (you've been rolling 1's and the players 20's), fudge a roll and let him escape. My rule of thumb is, if I fudge for the bad guys, I give out a bit of extra XP for making me fudge, or I have the bad guy drop or lose an item or something along the way.
C) Don't use only monsters for enemies. Yes, monsters are great, and they make things easy. But, a single bad guy monster of appropriate CR is also a single target that's much easier to take down. Personally, I suggest using sentient groups about 80% of the time, and keep the singleton monsters for CR+3 encounters that are supposed to be a major challenge to the group. For example, for a 1st level group, you could throw a Skeletal Champion at them for a tough but not super dangerous encounter. Or, you could throw 8 goblins or 4 goblins each with one class level at them as a tough but not super dangerous encounter. The downside of using multiple bad guys is it's way more work on your part, but it's way more fun for the PCs usually.
D) Don't get into the mentality of 'Enemy fight to death'. Any non-mindless enemy is not going to fight to death. It's going to run when it's HP get's low. Animals should try to withdraw when they are at less than 1/4. Sentients usually do the same at 1/3rd to 1/4. The worst bit of GMing it's ever been my misfortune to experience as a player was a fight where a T-Rex had my character in it's mouth. I had ring of blades up, and over 4 rounds it took over 60hps of damage to it's face but the GM said 'Oh no, he's too hungry to let you go'. That's BS, there's a reason hedgehogs and porcupines are not eaten every day. :)
E) Play your bad guys as smarter than the average shoe. Note this doesn't apply to things with a 6 int, or animals with a 1. They are dumb as the average shoe. :) But any animal with a 2 or 3 int, or a sentient with a 7+ is not a complete moron. They're going to use tactics, and they're not going to put themselves into intentionally poor positions without some overriding reason (like a a bunch of mercs following the orders of a foolish employer). Individuals might be stupid in their tactics, over all though, if the things they are fighting survived, they learned tactics. This applies more at 4 to 20 level, but to some extent even at lower levels.
EDIT : On A & B above, I suggest it only when the dice are being fickle one way or the other. If you do something monumentally stupid while running the bad guy and he's in it to his eyeballs over it, have him surrender if the PCs are good. He can escape later. If the players are just doing monumentally stupid things in combat (like the guy who's feated up to be a ranged attacker pulling his sword and closing for melee and getting chopped up), then let the chips fall where they may. If he has to make a new character, maybe he'll learn something from it.
The Paizo screen is awesome and very high quality.
If you'd like a landscape oriented screen that is free, you can download a PDF from d20pfsrd.com in the Downloads area.
Succeeding in an encounter is not the same as killing something.
You can succeed in an encounter by forcing the foe to run away -- such is worth exp.
You can succeed by convincing the king not to kill the guy that was framed for the coup attempt -- such is worth exp.
You can succeed at surviving the trap just by setting it off and not dying -- such is worth exp.
Anything can be an encounter -- from a hazardous road to a monster, to a monster not slain -- don't think that the players must kill something to be worthy of a reward.
Rewards don't have to be treasure and Exp. Bonus feats can be great awards -- as can titles, real estate, and in game perks. Don't be afraid of giving such out -- they should allow the players to be "awesome" to some degree (yes let them get use out of it!) and be great plot hooks too -- a character is much more likely to get involved with a dragon scorching villages if it's trying to scorch his castle!
If you have to do something on the fly (like invent a NPC or village) take notes on it as you go. That way you can flesh it out later and you can avoid inconsistencies like renaming the same village three times "wait I thought this was the town of dufflecreek with the mayor name tweedbottom, or was it the village of gredback with a noble named horswal?"
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Greetings all. I am interested in starting a new Pathfinder campaign. This will be my first time Game Mastering. My strengths however are that I have a creative imagination, I am an artist (draw, paint etc), fairly decent with math, and I have played many computer roleplaying games throughout many years.
A lot of the CRPGs out there have taken elements of D&D and put them into the mainstream language; terms like 'hit points', 'levels', and the iconic character roles have now become common among gamers who've never picked up a d20.
Be aware that this is a double-edged sword; some players who come from CRPGs may have pre-conceived ideas of how the game should work, and attempt to carry this over in rules ("What do you mean, there's no taunt mechanics?") or playstyle (getting iffy that they don't benefit from their level 10 PCs farming rats for xp...).I have a few questions though in terms of what I should purchase.
Which Bestiary do you guys and gals recommend? (There are 2).
Bestiary 1, definitely. This has the majority of the standard critters, used in the vast majority of games.
Not everything from the 3.5 Core Monster Manual made it in; some of the usual suspects got bumped for space reasons (hello Hippogriff!), but the second Bestiary is heavier with creatures from the outer planes, and some of the less-often used creatures from the 3.5 days, among many new ones (jabberwock! proteans!).I will definitely pick up the Game Mastery guide since that's pretty much a necessary item for beginners.
I wouldn't say it's necessary, but it certainly will save you time and effort, if only as a source of ready-made statblocks.
Maybe it's worth picking up the Bestiaries and GMG as pdf files, as they're a) cheaper, and b) allow you to cut and paste relevant statblocks so you only print what you need for the next session?
So besides that I feel pretty comfortable coming up with my own adventure. I might buy a pre determined adventure though since it does come with those nice tiles. Any recommendations.
I can't recall a PF scenario coming with tiles. Crypt of the Everflame does share a map with one of the Paizo Flip-Mats, but that's a separate purchase.
Paizo did do a line of 'Complete Encounters' (<---click link), which comprised of a short adventure and map tiles, though these were written for D&D 3.5. Shouldn't be too difficult to update, assuming someone here hasn't already done so.Finally currently I am playing my second Pathfinder campaign as a Barbarian and we rocked the last encounter Boss. We are doing very well thanks to the advice from everyone in this forum.
Cheers.
-Realmjumper
No problem.
You don't state how much experience the rest of the group have (if any) with D&D version 3.0/3.5.A lot of the advice will vary in usefulness, depending on what assumptions the helper is making about what you and your group already know. Don't be afraid to ask if you get confused by jargon.
Have fun!
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I am leaning toward a cold frontier town sort of like the comptuer game Icewind Dale.... Rather what I had original thought of was that adventurers will start in this town and slowly learn that all is not what it seems. Also to survive in this harsh climate will be part of the challenge since it is really cold.
Perhaps from the town they will learn of a nearby adventure spot but just getting there is half the battle. I plan on putting some acrobatic challenges like perhaps having to cross a bridge etc....A frontier town with a cold harsh climate. Perhaps it's the fall since Winter would be too hard for new starting characters.
Flight of the Red Raven is a cold wilderness adventure.
Written by one of the posters here, as winner of an Open Call competition.It's a while since I read it, so I can't remember how detailed the local town is (if at all), but it does involve some precarious situations, at a level when the PCs can't simply handwave them away (eg by flying 24/7).
I also have a question in terms of character levels. Should I just start everyone at level 1 since this is my first time Game Mastering? That would probably be the easiest, though I am interested in starting everyone a little higher say 3 or 4 to make things more interesting.
Starting at level 1 is easier on you, yes; however, it is also easier on the players, who really need to grow into their abilities, learn what they do, so they can make intelligent choices as they level up.
I am leaning toward a cold frontier town sort of like the comptuer game Icewind Dale. I have not played Icewind Dale so I am leaning on the name and screenshots, and a little things I read about it. This way I don't plan on just copying the game itself.
Rather what I had original thought of was that adventurers will start in this town and slowly learn that all is not what it seems. Also to survive in this harsh climate will be part of the challenge since it is really cold.
Perhaps from the town they will learn of a nearby adventure spot but just getting there is half the battle. I plan on putting some acrobatic challenges like perhaps having to cross a bridge etc.
Anyway I haven't really written anything but I will start to. This is the basic premise though. A frontier town with a cold harsh climate. Perhaps it's the fall since Winter would be too hard for new starting characters.
I also have a question in terms of character levels. Should I just start everyone at level 1 since this is my first time Game Mastering? That would probably be the easiest, though I am interested in starting everyone a little higher say 3 or 4 to make things more interesting.
Once I start writing and coming up with the plot I will post it here for now that is just the basic idea. They will be thrust into a hostile town with a few friendly npcs but will have to be careful who they run into etc.
Have you considered the Kingmaker AP?
It's set in the River Kingdoms, on the border of Brevoy, which is generally a very cold climate. In my campaign, I liken the region to Russia -- all the NPCs have Russo/Slavic names.
My player absolutely enjoys the exploration/sandbox nature of the first module. In my experience, players seem to enjoy a campaign more when they have ownership over the direction of the game.